Portraits of mules, that is. Hairy long eared ones. I'm planning on using my 5x7 Speeder, handheld with a 203 ektar up front. These will be outdoors in natural light (mules aren't known for sitting congenial in a studio) I am concerned about depth of field. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations? Thanks!

Short of stuffing the mule and shooting @ f16?

If your doing headshots at say 10 feet away then your DOF will be 1.67ft at f7.7

Doubling the distance for a full length formal, gives you 7.0ft @wide open.

If you just sedate the mule instead of stuffing you might be able to use f11, then you'll get 2.3' close up or 10.3ft far away.

I'm assuming you'll be shooting in the shade as PeTA will be after you if you make that poor creature stay out in the sun, you can be in the sun though.

Keep the tension high on the FP shutter-- The smallest slit is 1/8". The highest shutter speed is 1/1000 of a second, so the slit is traveling 1/8" in 1/1000", but there are 40 1/8ths in 5 inches, so it will take 40 milliseconds or 1/25th of a second for the shutter to complete it's travel.

tension 6 travels completes its travel in .040
Tension 5 (1/825 x40)= .048 about 1/20"
tension 4 (1/655 x 40)= .061 1/16"
tension 3 (1/490 x 40)= .082 about 1/13th
Tension 2 (1/330 x 40) = .121 or 1/8"


As you drop the tension the travel times gets slow enough to turn a prize mule into a picasso horse.